Posts Tagged ‘tech-savvy’

New Report Says Adults Need to Get Involved in Teens’ Online Activities

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

New Report Says Adults Need to Get Involved in Teens’ Online Activities

Yeah, this one is kind of from the “DUH” files, but it’s something worth repeating. We know that teens need adult guidance to navigate new worlds, digital or not. Just because teens feel more comfortable in digital worlds than many adults doesn’t mean they don’t need the help.

When we talk about how “tech savvy” kids are, or how they are “digital natives”, it creates a false sense that adults aren’t needed. Worse, it’s an excuse to ignore the whole thing. (See my post Digital natives/immigrants – how much do we love this slogan?)

Adults bring wisdom and experience of the world, even if they feel a bit like a fish out of water trying to sort out new rules for new media.

But adults need kids too. The typical reaction of adults is to make rules and hand them down to children. This isn’t serving us well here. Adults need to collaborate and communicate with youth to figure out how we all need to navigate these new waters. Teens bring interest, passion, committment, and experience, as well as a different point of view.

In a real collaboration, both sides have things to learn and things to offer. This is certainly true here.

Sylvia

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Free ebook – Engaging the Whole Child

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

Update – this offer is now expired. You can still get the e-book for $9.95 (or $7.95 if you are an ASCD member) using the link below. Still a pretty good deal if you ask me!

Last November, our Working with Tech-Savvy Kids article appeared in the ASCD magazine Educational Leadership. The good news is that Ed Leadership is one of the best magazines around for thoughtful articles about education. The bad news is that these articles are not freely available on the website.

But now, ASCD is offering ebooks with article collections with a short period of free access.

Better yet, I was very pleased to find out that Working with Tech Savvy Kids was selected for inclusion in a new ASCD ebook entitled Engaging the Whole Child, the first in a series of Whole Child ebooks. Educating the Whole Child ebook – free download link (valid April 15 – May 6, 2009)

As part of ASCD’s Whole Child Initiative, ASCD wanted to share with a larger audience—including preK–12 educators, policymakers, and parents—some of the fine articles on the topic of engagement that were originally published in Educational Leadership in 2006–2008. From April 15 through May 6, 2009, readers will be able to access these articles through a free ebook download. After May 6, sample chapters will be posted on the ASCD Web site and the complete book will be available through the online store for a small fee.

Educating the Whole Child ebook – free download link (valid April 15 – May 6, 2009)

Don’t miss the window to download the ebook for free! Please share this link with friends and colleagues.

Sylvia

Update: Thanks to all the commentors who helped debug the link errors. They seem to be working now. The basic problem was pilot error, compounded by the fact that this is a LARGE download (366 page PDF) and the ASCD site seems to be very busy. Enjoy!

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Working with Tech-Savvy Kids article in Educational Leadership

Monday, November 3rd, 2008

This month in Educational Leadership – Working with Tech-Savvy Kids (abstract) by Sylvia Martinez and Dennis Harper. (page 64)

Today’s students are increasingly savvy about the role technology plays in modern life. Yet schools are not keeping up. Students can be valuable resources in the areas of training and support. Five models have emerged that balance the benefits of service learning and leadership with the needs of schools struggling to integrate technology: students as committee members, students as trainers, students as technical support agents, students as resource developers and communicators, and students as peer mentors and leaders.

Unfortunately, most of the articles aren’t online, just the abstracts, although you can buy the articles.

As I’ve said before, Educational Leadership is one of the best publications dealing with K-12 education. Published by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), every issue focuses on a single broad topic. The November 2008 issue is “Giving Students Ownership of Learning” and features some terrific articles about aspects of student-centered education from active learning, formative assessment, student voice, developing student expertise, the power of audience, and more

Sylvia

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